So Much To Do...

Photo taken from Beaver Creek Guest Ranch lodge porch

...so little time.

I'm going to take a couple days later this week and spend them at Beaver Creek Guest Ranch
in the White Mountains of Arizona. This is the place I've gone to before to get work done on various fabric art projects and even a couple quilts.

I'm not a domestic type person, as you might have figured out if you've read previous posts here. The quilts I've made at these quilting retreats are for my bed, and I don't need to keep making them, so I am free to focus on wall hangings. That's where my creative juices are stirred.

As with my approach to domestic matters, I'm not much for following rules when it comes to quilting type stuff. If I read directions carefully, it's so I can figure out how to deviate from them. Once I've tried a technique the "right" way, it's my joy to see how I can tweak the process to get something very different.

That means, of course, that there are a few failures along the way.

Unlike with my bread-baking adventures (and the BBQ baking method is working quite well, thank you very much for asking) I can't just toss the failures to the dogs or chickens (or compost) to take care of. But that's OK. Quilters have a tradition of always having a few UFOs (UnFinished Objects) hidden from the light of day. These are projects you realized along the way you didn't love as much as you thought, or that required more technical skills than you had at the time, or that you simply haven't gotten around to dealing with because Life Gets In The Way.

Collect enough UFOs and you earn your quilters' PhD (Projects Half Done). I have a few PhDs now. I should get a raise.

So the other day I decided to clear out my sewing tool box, because I couldn't stuff anything more in it that I wanted to bring. Surely there would be a few items from old project that I didn't need to haul around.

Perhaps that box with false eyelashes didn't have to go with me this time. Thumbtacks: Will I need them? Have I ever used thumbtacks at a quilt retreat? I certainly don't need all those pencils and pens, especially since most of the ink in the pens has dried up (a hazard of living in arid country). Ditto for glue. Empty boxes and baggies with holes in them, five sets of tiny straight pins too small to use for anything (but they have such pretty crystal balls at the ends), hooks and snaps and buttons (sheesh, you'd think I was sewing clothes). Oil pastels. Fancy quilters thingamajigs that I've never taken out of the package. 

And even more.

Satiny fabric and metallic fabric and glittery ribbon.
I like sparkly stuff.

In the end, my tool box had tons more room, even when refilled with stuff I know I'll actually use.  Maybe that balances the extra fabric I decided I should bring in case I get inspired to work on something other than the UFOs I'm determined to finish.

Two days.  That's all I'll be up there.  Wonder if everything I want to bring will fit in the car or should I use the pickup truck...